Vedic Mythology c7.s7.25

c7.s7.25

A symbol must have been used, as at a later period, in the phallic worship which was known in the earliest Vedic period, as is shown by the occurrence in two passages of the word *śiśnádevāḥ*, ‘those who have a phallus for their deity’. Such worship was, however, repugnant to the religious ideas of the RV.; for Indra is besought not to let the *śiśnadevāḥ* approach the sacrifice (7, 215), and he is said to have slain the *śiśnadevāḥ*, when he won the treasure of the hundred-gated fort (10, 993). In the post-Vedic period the phallus or *liṅga* became symbolical of Śiva's generative power and its worship is widely diffused in India even at the present day²¹.